I've just read a piece about a current reality show on UK TV involving "celebrities" trying to be great chefs - where do they get these ideas from?

One of the finalists describes how unreal the production is. The food recorded hot but doing so takes so long that by the time the experts have tasted it it's tepid - listen to their sometimes ecstatic verdicts and unreality sets in.

But it's the little details that ring bells for we professional events and wedding programme makers. I quote "Just walking in, taking off your coat and putting on an apron takes a considerable time to film: ‘Sorry Christine, can you just tie the apron strings again – and please turn a shade more towards the camera. Apron strings . . . tie again?’ Whaaaat!

Give these cossetted programme makers a real reality job - like discreetly filming a wedding without the scores of assistants (check out the credits) and they'd find out what reality really is!

Philip.....you mean we don't get "do overs" ??? :-)

Chip, I remember well the last time I asked a groom who insisted on saying "until death do us part" instead of "us do part" to do it "one more time please, after all you only have to repeat what the man in the white frock is saying" - not!

One shot, one take, warts and all, with only the edit to "save" any goof ups, now THAT's "reality" production...

I'd venture that the "reality TV" producers would soil themselves if they had to capture top notch usable footage "on the fly" and not miss a thing.

Although I am considering "retakes"... hmmmm. Maybe as a "last resort".

For more conscientious viewers, Television has, over time, become synonymous with "Life in the Fake Lane". It is always designed, largely to entertain (yes, news programs too.), and is essentially not to be trusted as real. Therefore, "Reality Television" becomes something of a clever little joke unto itself, and should always be written with quotations around it.

-Jon